A LOOK AT THE PAST THROUGH THE YEARS The USS CASTOR ' S hull was designed and laid down as the first C-2 class cargo vessel by the Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company for the US Maritime Com- mission. She was launched at Kearney, N. J. on May 20, 1939 as SS CHALLENGE. When first completed, the vessel was operated for one year by the Cuba Mail Line before- purchase by the Navy on Octo- ber 23, 1940. Converted for the Navy and designated AKS-1, she was commissioned USS CASTOR on March 12, 1941, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Her mission was to carry general stores, ship ' s store stock, clothing, and medical supplies to the for- ward operating areas where no advance bases had been established. At 0730, December 7, 1941. CASTOR was among the ships in Pearl Harbor under attack by the Japanese. She had a cargo of TNT, and although the ship was strafed, there were no casualties among her crew. Until early 1944 when six more AKc3 vessels were completed, CASTOR and ANTARES (AKS-3) were the only ships of this class operating with the fleet. CASTOR finished the war servicing the fleet in the Western Pacific. On June 30, 1947, she was decommissioned, having steamed 246,354 miles. In October 1950, CASTOR was towed to Todd Shipyard, Alameda. California, where repairs and reactivation began. The next month she was again placed in com- mission and again sent to the Western Pacific. The ship witnessed the Korean conflict and remained in the Orient through 1955. CAS ' ; OR returned to San Francisco in January of 1956. For the next five months the ship underwent overhaul and conver- sion. Upon completion, she emerged as the most advanced supply ship in the technical and general stores area. The redesign of CASTOR, which resulted in placing techni- cal spares on board (electronics, ordnance, and ship ' s repair parts) gave the ship her present configuration and permitted the deactivation of two AKS-T ' s. CASTOR was thus three ships in one. She arrived in Yokosuka. Japan, her new homeport and began again to support ships in the Western Pacific. Shortly after returning to WESTPAC, CASTOR received an SOS from a Philippine merchant ship. SS LEPUS. She immediately turned her head toward the typhoon which was bat- tering LEPUS. With the assistance of res- cue plauies from Clark Air Force Base, CASTOR located and picked up eleven sur- vivors on the evening of October 20, 1956. The SS LEPUS had sunk the previous day. One survivor died from exposure shortly after rescue. The other twenty-five men aboard LEPUS were never found. On No- vember 5. 1956. the President of the Philippines, Ramon Magsaysay, presented a citation and plaque to the officers and men of CASTOR. In 1964. shortly before the ship began to deploy routinely to the South China Sea. her homeport was shifted to Sasebo, Japan, in Nagasaki Prefecture. The last six months of 1965 saw CASTOR in overhaul once again, this time in Sasebo by Sasebo Heavy Industries (SSK) and the Ship Repair De- partment, Fleet Activities, Sasebo. Instal- lation of the latest communications equip- ment was a primary modification in antic- ipation of an increased tempo of operations. Since early 1966, CASTOR has aver- aged meeting over one-hundred ships per deployment, while maintaining an average net effectiveness of over 90 ' ;f.. CASTOR continues to be most consistent in her sup- port of Yankee and Market-time ships in the waters off Vietnam. She is still NUMBER ONE.

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